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After eliciting 129 potential task-gesture combinations for 23 Smart TV tasks with a Canadian sample (N = 22), we then conducted studies that collected participant preference scores on mid-air bare-hand gestures for TV control in both Canada (N = 747) and China (N = 300), and we analyzed the effect of characteristics of individual participants on gesture preference scores. The results showed that age and cultural differences are important in determining task-gesture preferences. While exploratory, the present results indicate a need for more research in this area and suggest that one of two possible strategies may need to be adopted in designing future gesture interactions: 1) develop customized task-gesture combinations for different cultures and different age groups; 2) develop a core set of task-gesture combination possibilities and let users choose which gesture they want to use for each task.

This paper reports on the Patient Safety Research and Application Competition that was held in conjunction with the 2021 International Ergonomics Association Conference. The objectives of this competition were to: (1) Formulate research problem statements and innovative solutions to improve patient safety through the application of human factors/ergonomics (HF/E) to the healthcare system, (2) Showcase how the HF/E approach to this topic can lead to a useful, usable, and satisfying user experience while simultaneously improving outcomes relating to both functional and non-functional requirements, and (3) Provide an effective way of engaging students and early career researchers in IEA activities and initiatives. After reviewing the patient safety topics that motivated the design competition, we then report on the work carried out by the two finalists in the competition, and discuss lessons learned. We propose the continued use of design competitions in the future to motivate and showcase ergonomic problem-solving design by students and early career researchers and practitioners.

Serious games have grown significantly in popularity, but proving their scientific validity through research studies is a common hurdle for researchers and game developers. To scale up capacity to collaborate with different groups of researchers, Centivizer Inc. (a University of Toronto spinoff company) has employed a user-centered design process to design a BrainTagger Research Platform (BRP) that will largely automate the development process of its customizable serious games for cognitive assessment. This new development will increase the capacity to gather research data needed to improve game mechanisms and demonstrate game validity.

Traditional Human Factors Engineering (HFE) education focuses on bridging the gap between human and system design. Given the rapid, and accelerating technological advancement, particularly in areas such as machine learning and data science, how should HFE education adapt to better equip students for working in industry? This project sought to identify and understand the gap between HFE education and industry needs by surveying human factors engineering students and practitioners concerning their impressions of the gap and how it can be addressed.

The rapid aging of developed societies is creating an increasing number of cases of dementia and other aging-related diseases. Physical exercise has been shown to be beneficial for retaining cognitive, as well as physical function. In this paper we describe a system that we have developed for motivating older people to exercise. We begin by demonstrating how activity declines with age using an analysis of survey data (from 2003–2015) reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics on American Time Use Usage. We use multiple discriminant analysis to characterize which activities tend to become more, or less frequent as people age. We then review previous exergame approaches for motivating physical activity. After this we discuss a pedaling system that is designed to motivate and facilitate physical activity in the elderly using a combination of competition, social interaction, and engaging video content. We conclude with a discussion of how to adapt exergaming innovations to the context of use.

Access to leisure and wellbeing can be difficult to arrive at due to constraints in health, income, location and time. With shifting demographics (inversion of the aging pyramid) and increasing urbanization, there is an increasingly urgent need to improve access to leisure activities, particularly for those living in crowded cities or who have limited mobility.

Memories of experience are influenced by a peak-end effect [13]. Memories are modified to emphasize the final portions of an experience, and the peak positive, or negative, portion of that experience. We examine peak-end effects on judged Technical Quality (TQ) of online video. In two studies, sequences of different types of video disruption were varied so as to manipulate the peak-end effect of the experiences. The first experiment demonstrated an end effect, plus a possible peak effect involving negative, but not positive, experience. The second study manipulated payment conditions so that some sessions were structured as requiring payment to watch the video. The second study also distinguished between a peak effect and a possible sequence effect. Evidence was again found for an end effect, with a secondary effect of sequence, but no evidence was found for a peak effect independent of sequencing.